As if performing Shakespeare for teenagers weren't bad enough, try doing it in a detention center, too.

William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" arrived at the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center because of a repertory performance group of BYU students.

Pam Mayes started the group, the Black Swan Company, two years ago, with sponsorship from both BYU and The Shakespeare Fellowship.

Since then the group has performed various Shakespeare plays for over 30,000 students at schools throughout Utah.

"The motivation behind what I do is the assumption that we have to be proactive in seeing that culture is transferred from one generation to the next," Mayes said. "If we are going to pass on something cultural then I think Shakespeare is a great choice."

Performing at the detention center is a first for the Black Swan Company.

"I was a little bit anxious going to an unfamiliar environment, going through security and seeing how the students would receive me, but it was a delight" said Donna Neilsen, lecturer for the Black Swan Company.

Neilsen goes into the schools before the actual performance to teach the children about Shakespeare and help them better understand the play they are about to see.

"I try to think 'what would keep an 11 year-old-boy on the edge of his seat?'" Neilsen said.

Neilsen prepares slides, overheads, music, food and props, and relates things like relationships, customs and language from Shakespeare's time to something modern, with which students are familiar.

"My goal is to make people feel smart and empowered by learning," Neilsen said.

Usually the Black Swan Company performs for elementary and middle school children, so performing for teenagers at a correctional facility was a bit of a change.

"It was fun to watch the students come in with their eyes downcast, determined not to be interested or impressed, and then see that lift of them being excited by the end of the show," Neilsen said.

Group member Becky Witham, 24, from Provo, a graduate in theater education was excited for the new experience of performing at the detention center and hopes to do it again.

"Our main goal is taking Shakespeare to kids," Witham said.

A teacher at the Salt Lake Detention Center, Lynn Quarry, said the Black Swan Company was well received.

"These are kids who are in crisis and to hold there attention is quite remarkable," Quarry said. "They were very responsive."



Copyright Brigham Young University 28 Mar 2002